By Lindsay Renner, Ad Editor
It is almost impossible to convey the strong sense of absurdity that runs throughout Eugene Ionesco’s play Rhinoceros. The central conceit of the piece revolves around the transformation of the citizens of a town in France to rhinoceroses as soon as they accept the presence of the beasts. However, this conveys a much stronger underlying theme. The play’s protagonist, Berenger, refuses to accept the beasts and does not become one of the herd himself. This refusal to accept a widespread phenomenon as this points to the importance of the reliance on oneself to hold up personal ideals, and the distinction of individuals who embark among this path from the rest of society.
As an absurd play, this work demands a strong over the top quality from its actresses and actors. Bodily movements must be large in size, and it is important that the audience buy strongly into the emotions associated with these occurrences. That being said, all the play’s actors and actresses possessed the strong flair for the dramatic that is required of apiece such as this. Particularly strong were Brittney Currie in the role of Jean and Justin Paulauskis in the role of the protagonist Berenger. Currie’s movements were grand and harried, as one would expect of someone losing their mind and succumbing to the herd. Berenger is utterly the opposite: though a drunkard, he is much more in possession of the willpower Jean so frequently encourages him to cultivate more thoroughly. It can even be argued that through Currie’s portrayal of Jean, he may be the deciding agent. In Act 2, Scene2, in which Jean morphs into a rhinoceros while Berenger is in his apartment, Berenger’s horror at the situation is palpable, and feeds strongly off of the increasing levels of madness that Currie conveys.
As set design goes, this production featured very minimalist workings. There were two main areas to the stage that served various purposes throughout the scenes and acts. Chairs and other furniture were taken and added as needed. The largely dark colors of this set made it much easier for the viewer to focus on the action in the play, rather than the characters’ surroundings. However, most impressive was the screen on the back wall. During the course of the play, this screen was used to show a slideshow of pictures at various moments. These pictures added comedic value at all the right moments, and at one point in Act 3, showcased the eventual transformation of various characters into rhinoceroses before they even happened. This subtle method of foreshadowing played very nicely into the play’s overall atmosphere. The uniformity of costume among the play’s supporting characters was also a nice touch. Most of the minor characters wore grey pants and light colored shirts. This was most notable in the office scene, in which every character wore grey pants and a white shirt. This unity distinguished Berenger nicely from the rest of the characters, as well as his love interest Daisy (portrayed by Julia Teal).
As mentioned earlier, for this piece to function properly, a high level of dramatic intensity is of the utmost necessity. The actors for this play’s major characters-Berenger, Jean, Daisy and Dudard, respectively- all excelled at this task. The same was true for virtually every other actor in this production. Paulauskis especially showed a remarkable gift for bringing out the intensity, insanity and confusion associated with Berenger’s character. At the play’s conclusion, it was clearly evident to the viewer how strong Berenger’s character was. Paulauskis truly played him as a man who had lost everything, yet still refused to give in to the will of the majority. It must also be noted that not a single physical rhinoceros was ever present on the stage or in the theater in general, yet every actor and actress excelled at leading the audience to believe one was in the building. From beginning to end, this play flowed very nicely. Although it got a little hung up towards the middle, the action quickly resumed and kept moving up until the very end. One could not leave this show without being reminded of staying true to oneself and never capitulating.
